Cat and Mouse
by radieoactive
Summary: Dean is a mechanic working in an auto shop with Bobby and he meets Castiel one day.


Today was not Dean's day.

Actually, it had been the complete opposite. He lost about half of his client's forms and messed up 3 cars, and when Bobby came in, the place was a wreck. There was oil spilled everywhere on the floor, some of it smeared on the cars, wrong colors of paint on wrong cars. Bobby was about to have a heart attack.

Dean, on the other hand, was about to have a nervous breakdown. He was furiously scrubbing one of the cars when Bobby grabbed his hand and forced him to stop, making him drink some water and sit down.

"What the hell happened?" Bobby questioned, hoping that Dean was calm enough to answer. In response, Dean frantically shook his head.

"I – I don't -" Dean breathed, stuttering his words. "I don't know, I just.."

"You what? Dean, what happened?"

Dean exhaled. He looked down at his shoes, then back up at Bobby. "I freaked out. Things aren't going well today."

"Yeah. I noticed." Bobby scoffed. "Get yourself cleaned up. Come back to me when you're done, there's no way I can fix this all by myself."

Dean nodded, getting up from his seat and walking off to the restroom. His hands were covered in black oil, and when he reached the sink, he grabbed a bar of soap and started washing away the substance.

It wasn't long before Dean came out, looking decent again. Bobby was mopping up the oil on the floor and Dean grabbed another mop, helping Bobby clean.

"Did this happen before?" Bobby asked, breaking the silence between the two. Dean stopped in his tracks and stared at the oil below him.

"Maybe. I don't remember."

"Let's hope it doesn't happen again, then." Bobby finished mopping the remaining oil and took Dean's mop, setting them aside to be put back into the supplies closet.

Dean helped Bobby fix the rest of his mistakes. It was about 20 minutes before closing time when the phone rang.

Dean picked it up, changing his tone. "Hello, this is Winchesters' Auto Repair Shop, is there something you need?"

The man on the other end of the line coughed a bit. "Yes, um, are you guys able to take another job?" Dean looked at Bobby, who was already staring at him.

"Sorry, sir, can you hold on for just a minute?" Dean asked, and the man grunted in approval. Dean walked over to Bobby.

"Hey, we okay with another car?" Bobby shrugged, and Dean guessed that was a way of saying yes. He picked up the phone again, putting it to his ear.

"Sure. When would you like to drop your car off?"

-x-

Dean was just arriving at the auto shop when he saw the man from yesterday – supposedly – driving his car into the garage. Dean parked his own vehicle and walked into the shop, looking for Bobby and the customer.

He found Bobby talking to the man, writing something down – probably his order – and Dean walked up, getting a clear view of the stranger.

What Dean didn't expect was to fall in love at first sight. The man had black hair, not too short, just the right style – _exactly _what Dean liked. Even more breathtaking than his beautiful hair was his eyes. The eyes, oh, Dean would never forget them.

Only one word was in Dean's mind when he saw them – angelic. His eyes were like a crystal ball, they were blue and big and beautiful. The man smiled at Dean.

Dean swore his heart skipped a beat. Everything about this man was intriguing.

Bobby snapped, making Dean jump out of his trance. "You there, boy?"

Dean nodded his head, looking at Bobby and then at the customer. He brought his hand out, gesturing a hand shake. "Hi, sir, I'm Dean," The customer took it, holding it firmly, and then shook it. Dean was ecstatic.

"Well, hello, Dean," The man replied. Again, he flashed his smile. "I didn't know people here were so friendly!"

Bobby nodded, looking suspiciously at Dean. "We try our best," Dean was looking longingly at the customer. "So, Mr. Novak, these repairs won't take but a day or two," Dean raised an eyebrow at Bobby. He was sure he'd heard the name, he just couldn't recall where.

"Mr. Novak.." The words rolled off Dean's tongue in a whisper. He'd have to remember that name for sure.

"Yes, Mr. Novak," Dean looked at the client before looking at Bobby. "I prefer Castiel a lot better, though."

Castiel. Such a beautiful name for a beautiful man. Dean was already falling head over heels in love with someone he'd just met.

Dean took Castiel's hand again, shaking it like there was no tomorrow. "Castiel, sir, I'll work on your car all night if I have too," Bobby stared at Dean, wide eyed. "I swear it. It'll be the first car I finish with." Castiel was speechless.

"Really?" Castiel's eyes darted to Bobby, who was still looking at Dean. "You have such devoted workers! Amazing. Absolutely wonderful. I'll, um, give you a review on Yelp or something."

A voice in the back of Dean's head worried about whether he could get the job done in time or not. Although Dean brushed it off quickly, he couldn't help but wonder for a bit – him and Bobby had other customers to deal with and it wasn't going to be easy to fix a car overnight. Quickly, Bobby wrote down some more information about the order and Castiel left, and Dean felt like he had lost a part of himself. Something about this man was just so.. absorbing.

"And how exactly are you supposed to fix that damn car by the morning?" Bobby scolded, and Dean's happy attitude immediately sunk. "I don't know, but I can try,"

A hand rested on Dean's shoulder. Furrowing his eyebrows together, Dean sighed. "Look, Bobby, I know we have a million other things to do first," Bobby nodded, signaling Dean to go on. "But I promise that I'll get those done, too. Let me at least try, yeah?"

Reluctantly, Bobby agreed.

That night, Dean spent hours upon hours of never-ending work on the car. He even fixed up the paint on it – leaving it shiny, sparkling, and new. Dean was pretty sure he'd get a tip for this.

Morning rolled around, and Dean was washing the car's windows when Castiel came in to pick it up. Although Dean was sweaty and dirty, he still tried his best to look okay. Castiel laughed in disbelief.

"You weren't kidding when you said you'd have it fixed up by this morning," A grin formed on Castiel's face and he brushed some hair away from his face. "Thank you. Thank you so, so much."

Grabbing the bucket full of water on the floor next to him, Dean dropped the rag he was using into it. A drop of sweat rolled down Dean's face and he used his wrist to wipe it.

"You're very welcome, Castiel," Dean's cheeks flushed red. "It'll be running better than ever. Fixed it up more than I do on my own car,"

Castiel walked to the car, eyes looking it over. "Incredible. Here, take my credit card and charge as much as you need," Dean's eyes opened wide, and he took the credit card Castiel was handing him. "Nah. I think I'll only take what you owe me. It was an experience in itself to improve 'er."

Soon, Castiel got into the car, driving it out of the garage and onto the driveway. He rolled his window down and poked his head out, waving goodbye to Dean.

"I hope I see you soon!" Were his last words before leaving, driving away to wherever.

Dean breathed, letting air escape from his mouth.

"Yeah. Me too."

-x-

The week went by pretty quickly, with Dean and Bobby working their hardest to finish the other clients' cars. In all honesty, Dean was only working hard because of the idea of meeting Castiel again. Maybe he had another car he needed to be fixed, maybe he just wanted to talk to Dean – which was Dean's favorite guess – or, maybe Dean would see him somewhere else. Whatever the answer was, it kept Dean going.

Sam was due to arrive for vacation in a week, and Dean was also excited for that, too. It had been a while since Sam and Dean had seen each other, with Sam away at Stanford. When Sam got the acceptance letter, Dean didn't actually think he'd go – to Dean, family was first and the most important thing of all, and to leave it was like a crime. Sam had explained to him many times why he left (it was all a fuzzy memory in Dean's head, but he'd remembered some of it), saying that he could make his own decisions, and when asked about their parents and what they'd think, he replied two words that Dean couldn't forget: "They're dead."

At first, Dean refused to acknowledge it. The cold, hard truth was just too much to handle, and Dean wanted to get away from it all, he guessed Sam did too. Instead of accepting it, like Sam, he ran away from it. That decision led to where he was today and the state of his relationship with Sam.

They'd still talk. A few video calls on Skype, once in a while, nothing much. He'd gotten bits and pieces of Sam's life from the phone calls late at night (they were in different time zones), and he figured it was enough. In reality, it wasn't.

Dean tried to fix their relationship. It was like a rubber band – close at first, then farther and father away, threatening to snap – and Dean hated it. He knew Sam didn't care much about Dean's life anymore, but Dean still held on, trying to glue it the fallen pieces together again and back to its original state. It didn't work as well as he planned it to.

Still, Dean was happy that Sam was visiting him. Sam had called him earlier in the week and he couldn't have been happier.

Sam even told Dean about his new girlfriend – Jessica (or Jess) was her name. They way he described her, Dean thought the girl must have been an angel or something. Sadly, Sam wasn't bringing her along, so Dean couldn't see for himself.

On Friday, when it was close to closing time, Dean decided to go out somewhere and eat. Usually, he ate at home, but he wanted to celebrate a bit (having Sam visit was like a holiday to him). Plus, Bobby had told him of a new fast food place that just opened in one of the outdoor malls.

Quickly, Dean grabbed his jacket and his phone, walking off towards his car. Bobby had already left, so his vehicle was the only one parked in the lot.

Dean arrived at the eatery and ordered something cheap – he wasn't hungry and wasn't willing to pay a lot. His order was ready in a couple of minutes and he grabbed it, seeing the outside eating area and deciding to sit down there. He liked watching people walk by anyways.

Taking a bite from his food, he looked at his surroundings, the people nearby, the scenery. A fountain placed in the center of the plaza was spurting out water, making the water dance around. To Dean, moments like these were peaceful.

Watching the fountain, Dean spotted a man walking up to the fountain, sitting on the rock edges of it. The man looked strangely familiar – the style of his hair, his eyes, which were pretty hard to see, but Dean could barely make out the color of them – crystal blue. It was then when Dean realized who that man was.

It was Castiel.


End file.
